Asset Recovery Unit

BACKGROUND TO CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE/ ASSET RECOVERY 

From time immemorial mankind has believed in justice, man have come to understand that only when justice rolls like a mighty stream only then will peace amongst men reign. In a quest to achieve justice, criminal law and procedure has been the greatest tool in man’s armory to employ against crime and to find justice. 

However, experience has taught mankind that the criminal justice system on its own is not enough. For the criminal justice system often did not disenfranchise criminals of the proceeds of crime or even the instrumentalities employed in the commission of crime. Worst still, often criminals use the very proceeds of crime to fund their court battles. 

With the snail pace of the criminal justice system, cases dragging on for decades, criminals and their beneficiaries have often languished in luxury. The kind of luxury which their countrymen only envision in their wildest dreams whilst some could only lament the injustice they see before their eyes. 

In rare cases where criminal cases are finalized, and criminals are punished, criminal enterprises are, however, never shut! 

With acquired proceeds of crime and instrumentalities of crime still handy, crime goes on and on, unabated! To criminals and their syndicates, criminal law and procedure;  consequences thereof like convictions and prison sentences, it is treated as only an opportunity to change human resources. To some it is a form of fully paid leave or retirement to prison, in some instances an opportunity to take fully paid study leave to tune their criminal techniques in prisons from well-seasoned crooks enjoying their retirement in prison. 

Whilst criminal cases drag on, the beneficiaries are often left languishing in the proceeds of crime and well-armed with the instrumentalities of crime. In short, the crime syndicate machinery is often left intact, temporarily short of human resources which criminal justice system targets for punishment. The challenge also is the global nature of crime and sophistication used to commit crime and difficulty in both investigations and prosecutions of crime currently. 

This to mankind became clear it was not a form of justice befitting. Criminals have outsmarted them. Voices have echoed from places far and near, loud and clear that “tsabo moshemane ha li jeoe.” and “tse utsoitsoeng le tse sentsoeng li batla pusetso”. 

ADOPTION OF CIVIL ASSET RECOVERY PROCEDURE/ ASSET FORFEITURE 

The Civil Asset Recovery legal regime is entailed in both international instruments such as the United Nation Convention Against Corruption of 2003 and domestic legislation such as Lesotho Money Laundering and Proceeds of crime Act 4 of 2008 as amended (MLPCA). 

These legal instruments draw from mankind’s sense of justice that indeed, one must return the proceeds of crime and not in any way possess instruments he/she employed to commit crime. 

One must note that the proceedings are mostly civil in nature and in rem [proceedings against the property] and not in persona [proceedings against the person]. Criminal proceedings where the aim is to punish the person are left unaffected by this procedure, the focus is whether the property is itself proceeds of crime and or instrumentality of unlawful conduct or not. 

THE ASSET RECOVERY UNIT MANDATE 

The ARU mandate is to rooted from the MLPCA that through civil litigation, the Unit obtains proceeds of crime and instruments of crime. So long as the unlawful activities committed fall within the scope of crimes the DCEO is empowered to deal with. 

Through its other arm of Asset Management, the ARU sees to it that the proceeds of crime and instruments of crime declared forfeit to the state by the courts, are managed for the state and or returned to the rightful owners. 

In this manner the ARU indeed ensures that, “tse sentsoeng le tse utsoitsoeng li hloka pusetso” and “tsa bo mo shemane ha li jeoe.”